Devil in Snake's Scales
by XxDarkestNightSoulxX
Summary: Serpentine have a longer history then any of the Ninja thought. Some of it is worst then they can even imagine! A beast has been released from the depths of hell itself by the serpentine, who have just escaped the Stone Army tomb and are seeking revenge. Will the ninja be able to defeat a demon that even the First Spinjitzu Master couldn't handle? Or will it slaughter them all?
1. Prologue

The clouds were black and merciless, spewing lightning from their vales every few seconds, which would strike either one of the trees or cacti that littered the blood-covered desert, or one of the warriors who fought in the desert, shedding their blood upon the sand as they fought the black-plated serpentine warriors, known by the race name of the Draslither. So far, the battle appeared to be going on the side of the God of Snakes, formally known farther into his future as the Great Devourer, which would later be explained. Then, it had taken an unexpected twist in the side of the Draslither, and their deadly, death-spoken leader, whose name was a curse under this land.

Dragel.

Monster, they called him. Cannibal and terrorist of his own people, without the slightest concern of his own people's safety. Not that they cared, any way. As long as the Draslither stayed out of the way of their fearless leader, no one got killed. And Dragel didn't just hurt them if they defied him. He didn't offer them mercy, or a second chance. He didn't ask if they were sure of what they had just said. If anyone spoke so much as a word out of place, the cold-blooded leader would kill them on the spot, without a second thought or testimony.

Right now, Dragel was leading his army across the barren fields of the desert, slaughtering all and any who dare get in his way, be it his own men or the men of the other side. You could tell by this that Dragel was not the kind of serpentine leader to skulk away while his minions did all the work, oh no. In fact, if you tried to do that, he would kill you on the spot, without even waiting to see why you had defied him.

While the screams of his men could be heard, the General, Xeiven, paced restlessly across the sandstone floor of Ouroborus, their main city, which, unlike in the present, spread for many miles. In the middle of the city was a large slither pit, used for training when the serpentine warriors needed to. Across from that was a statue of the Great One, or God of Snakes himself. And straight across from the statue was the Great One himself, looking tired and worn out from their vicious, unending war with the merciless Dragel.

"Xeiven, what's the report?" Asked the Great One rather tiredly, obviously used to hearing that many of his hundreds of thousands of warriors had been stricken dead in the never ending war in which they lived in. Even though he was more snake then many of the serpentine, they still praised the Great One. For if they left him, they'd be slaughtered by Dragel and his army of Draslither.

Looking over at the Great One, Xeivan had to wipe sweat from his brow, his scales on edge after the recent loss of Co'Gahfin, one of their larger cities that, up until now, had seemed impenetrable from the outside unless granted entry. Which Xeivan assumed, from the way the city had been taken, that an assassin had slithered past the defenses and had murdered the high lord of the city, that of its own creating major panic in the city.

"Not good, sire o' Great One," replied the Venomari General, flicking his tail back and forth as he slithered towards where the Great One, who was sitting comfortably, with his tail wrapped around his body, and his head upright in a regal position, so as no one would be able to defy him. Not that anyone in their right mind would, "It looks like the Iguanamara joined sides with Dragel after all, and that is not good. The Iguanamara are one of the most powerful spellcasting races in our history, only not beating the Draslither and Iciclai. And the Vaporious still refuse to be part of this war at all, and now, whenever we try to get close, they dive down too deep underwater for us to reach them."

"Curses. I fear my vision may be true, then..." The Great One sighed in defeat, restraining from his regal posture as he rested his head on his tail, his eyes taking on a tired glint, clearly frustrated by their status in the war, and not liking that fact that, before him, they had had a great leader, a serpentine ninja, who had helped cast a spell on Dragel that prevented him from attacking Ouroborus. Though that was useless, now, because Dragel had an army to back him up. Stronger then the one the Great One's ancestors had fought against.

"Vision, my sire? No insulting tone meant, sire, o' Great One, but why have thy regretted to inform myself, your most trusted general, of such a vision?" Asked Xeiven rather hesitantly, not quite sure he wanted to know the answer to that question. After all, visions in this time were usually bad omens if the one the vision was given to was over five years old. And the Great One had started receiving the visions as soon as Dragel had taken Co'Gahfin.

"Yes, General Xeiven," Informed the Great One, glancing down at his underling as the General cautiously slithered forwards, "'Twas not a good one, I regretfully inform thy, as many cursed omens pollute thy minds. My death will be slow, painful, and I will hate every second of it. I will die at the claws of a beast made of gold, but a heart that is black, and many years I will spend in the dark. I will try to kill those who I love, and my mind will be tainted with bile. Even the elements will bring me torture in my long days. I regretted to inform you because I did not wish you and try to stop thy fate. It is unpreventable, I assure you. Omens often are," the Great One quickly added, "I have seen my future, and I have seen that I will be reborn as something beautiful. Do not fret, my General, we may meet again in the afterlife, If I am as lucky."

This seemed to make General Xeiven hurt, for his face cringed and he felt his faith in the Great One swindle. If the Great One must die, no one could give him a more honorable death then the king of death himself, Dragel. Many believed that Dragel be the devil in the scales of a snake, killing off all who displeased him. If the omen the Great One spoke of was true... then may all twelve of the snake gods bless them.

With a sigh, the General asked, "Sire, o' Great One, aren't thy sure you wish not to call the humans for help? They have sided with us, for they too wish to prevent the Devil from coming into their homes, slaughtering their wives and children. Yet you keep saying such things will only lead to our demise. Why sire? Why do you say such things? The humans could help us, my sire, if only we accept their help..."

Shaking his head, the Great One said sadly, "No, Xeiven. Bringing the humans into this will only make me hate thyself, curse thyself. They will be at the heart of my torture. At least we can prevent them from interfering with the plan at hand, so they might be spared by the gods from the vicious onslaught about to come. But I fear it cannot be contained forever..."

At this, General Xeiven's face darkened, and he let out a sigh of defeat, bowing deeply in the presence of one so grand as the Great One, feeling utterly helpless against the sick games the Snake Gods wished to throw upon them. Sweat boiled atop his brow, and the taste of blood was quickly approaching them, and the sound of trumpets, which meant the Draslither were just now invading Ouroborus, which made the Great One shake his head, and say something that chilled Xeiven straight down to the bone.

"The gods are calling me, so I must answer. Arm me with my battle armor, I must fight one last battle till the gods send me to my grave. Tell all on our side that the day has arrived. Tell all who will listen that the greatest battle of all has become our honor! Gather my men and tell them that the Battle for Ouroborus has officially begun!"

* * *

The heat felt unnatural as the armies of snakes marched towards the battlefield, all equipped with deadly weapons. Hypnobrai, Constrictai, Venomari, Fangpyre, Anacondrai, Iciclai, Bloodbite, Flouristricai, Scopicai, Phaomis, and many other serpentine breeds marched across the planes as they got ready for battle, all of their eyes ready for the upcoming fight to the death. They all looked tired, and many still had unattended injuries, but that was just many of the consequences of war.

In the lead of the battle parade was none other then the Great One himself, his eyes old and tired as he awaited his fate. If he was to die today, or the next, or the day after, he would die with a banner above his head as he lead his armies to defeat the tyranny of Dragel once and for all, and if he did die under the claws of Dragel, he would die in honor, having served this war well.

"Sire! General Awaegon!" Called a Hypnobrai scout who, at the moment, was galloping towards them on horse. The horse itself looked exhausted and overworked, probably from having been rode back and forth from Ouroborus to near the Draslither encampment, "the Draslither army approaches! They are coming in one large wave! No extra patrols in sight! Arm yourself, my sire! Be ready! They are expecting us!"

This made Awaegon snort, looking over at the scout, who was driving into their defenses to find a better place to rest himself and his horse. "Let them come. O' mighty Great One is ready for them, and we shall slaughter every last one of them! O' Devil, we will splay your blood, and thy God of Snakes will purge this land of your filth!" The proud general then raised his staff, letting it shine brightly in the sunlight, and letting serpentine below cheer in approval, before he lowered it, pressed a button on the staff, and it transformed into deadly sword, like all the main general's staffs could do.

Following the Hypnobrai Head General's lead, the other serpentine leaders – with the exception of the Great One, who didn't have use of a blade/staff – pressed a button on their staffs, and each and every one of the staffs turned into deadly swords, the snakes slithering down the staff to reveal a blade, then stopping as the handle and snake head as pommel. Each blade held an enchantment that, when hit with the blade, infected the victim with the effect. Long ago, when the legendary Snake Ninja put the enchantment on Dragel, he also hid the devil's sword/staff.

The scout had definitely been true to his word, because almost as soon as the generals pressed the buttons on their staffs, the black, skeletal horses of the Draslither warriors appeared, hissing and spitting and being the hideous abominations that the devil himself had brought into this world of man and beast. Legends said that the black horses existed because Dragel had put an enchantment on a single female horse, and now, whenever she mated, when her colts and fillies are killed, their bones become animated, and lose any kind of emotion what so ever. They also grow super fast.

But the sight that made the serpentine warriors and soldiers cringe was not the hideous horses and deformed Draslither, but rather the perfection of the black beast that soared high above the winged demons below him, his eyes like the red pits of hell, and his fangs as sharp as death itself. It had the body of a serpentine, but was twice the size of a normal general, larger then even the long-necked Anacondrai stretching its neck as high as it could. It had wings, like the Draslither below him, but they were large enough to fly efficiently, unlike his underlings, who could only fly for about thirty seconds to a minute. Maybe five minutes. Like all serpentine generals, the devil had the arms of a human, and the long tail of a general. But the most distinctive figure of his perfection was his dragonoid head. It was staring into the eyes of the beast itself, only twenty times more terrifying, and his to canines were the size of daggers, and sharper then the sharpest blade on earth.

But his voice was smooth, yet menacing, and made it sound like he thought it was rather amusing that the other serpentine actually thought that they even stood the slightest chance of defeating him. And as he beat his wings so that he could come into hearing range of the other army, he sped past the speeding horses, which immediately stopped when they saw him, and whinnied in a horrid sounding way.

"Ah, if it isn't my old friend, the _Great One_," Said Dragel in an amused tone, hovering about twenty to thirty feet in the air, and about the same distance away from the Great One, "You know you could have been truly great! We could have fought together, and burned this miserable planet to ashes. We could have made others choke on the pollution of the air, as we lived in luxury. How can you say that you had refused such an... irresistible offer? Any smart man would have accepted it."

"I'm not you, devil," The Great One hissed through gritted teeth, glaring with angry eyes up at the not-so-ugly-yet-terrifying beast in front of him, who, ironically, seemed relaxed and rather smug about the whole war, as if he thought it was all just a fun game, "I actually care about other people. Your a cannibal and a terrorist of your own people. You murder for fun, and even this war you seem to take lightly! Did you ever think that someone actually might stop you?"

As soon as Dragel heard this, he burst out laughing. It was a cruel laugh, the kind you might hear from a man who drank blood and feasted on flesh, and swam in the gore of his own kind, "You amuse me to no bounds, Great One. Or how about I call you Devon? Your not so great, old friend. If you were, you would have joined me already."

"Only a madman or zombies join your side, Dragel," The Great One growled, not liking the fact that Dragel had used his name before he had taken over as the leader of the serpentine. Of course, Dragel and him had never been friends, the devil had just asked him to join his side once. The only time Dragel had ever shown mercy to any one, and the Great One, of course, had refused the beast.

For this, Dragel put on a fake taken aback look as he stared down at his 'old friend', who stared up at him with a glare that would have made a lesser man kill himself under the pressure. Then Dragel smiled again, his fangs polished white despite all the carnage he had eaten and all the serpentine and humans alike he had slain with those deadly fangs.

"You amuse me, Devon, you really do," the devil said in an honest tone, flying a few feet backwards, away from the Great One, a smirk still tight on his lips as he did so, "but I'm afraid your fate is far worst then mine. You'll see what I mean, and you won't be able to stop it until it's too late, I'm afraid. This is the end. We're already here, at Ouroborus, ready to take the city. You haven't stopped us before, you won't stop us now."

As soon as the last of those words left Dragel's mouth, he opened his jaws wide, and a blast of fire, just like a real dragon, shot from his jaw, heading straight in the direction of the Great One. It felt hot and sticky, and smelt absolutely awful as it rocketed towards the large snake, but he managed to turn his head just the right angle, so it only left small scorch marks on his scales, and damaged instead his head armor that he had been lucky enough to happen to be wearing.

As if on que, the hideous, deformed creatures known as the rest of the Draslither, and their equally hideous steeds, galloped towards the now-recovering warriors of the Great One's army, their cries for blood and war almost ear-splitting as they began to chop through the ranks of soldiers in their way. Many of them jumped down from their steeds to battle on foot, some flew off, and others just kept riding. In the distance, the trampling of footsteps could be heard, which meant the rest of the Draslither army was approaching.

With a roar, the Great One and Dragel almost instantly met in bloody battle, the Great One jumping up at the devil with his jaws wide open to expose a set of very deadly, very lethal, and very poisonous fangs. The canines were about the size of the sword/staffs the other Generals were carrying, and to a normal opponent, very dangerous.

But Dragel was no normal opponent. As soon as the Great One thought he'd nailed the tricky serpentine, Dragel dodged to one side, his body like a streamer, just missing the fangs of his powerful, large opponent. Then the black snake did a side turn and brought his very lethal claws, white like ivory, down upon the Great One's iron helmet. The helmet should, in its own, have held together, as no normal creature could break through armor that easily.

It didn't.

Instead of bouncing Dragel's claws away, the helm snapped off where Dragel's claws had struck, and falling to the ground with a_ CLUNK! _Leaving a very delicate part of the Great One's scales exposed where he didn't want them to be: His bright green scales near where his deadly jaw was set, glistening sourly after being rammed painfully with the tight metal.

"Bet you didn't expect _that_, did you?" Came Dragel's voice from the opposite direction of where the Great One was standing, looking slightly dazed as his armies battled against the fearless Draslither who, despite their recent wins, were being thrown back by the sheer force of the Great One's armies, which were a lot greater in numbers then the other race..

Spitting in rage, The Great One spun around to face Dragel, only to feel intense pain as the black serpent dug his claws under his chin, cutting into the armor as if it were nothing more then paper. With a painful sound to his ears, the Great One could only watch as Dragel tore off his helmet, exposing his face.

Throwing Dragel a hateful look, the Great One's face scarred from the battle that was raging on around them. Blood dripped down his face as he snarled at Dragel, who had managed to tear off his helmet with little to no problem, then hissed through gritted teeth at the slimy serpent in front of him, wanting Dragel to know that he would still defy him, even wounded.

"You mistake me for a fool, Dragel. I will not cower or run like my ancestors did. I will fight you till the very end. It doesn't matter if I'm bloodied and broken and you have barely broken a sweat. It won't matter if your army kills every single one of my men. And in won't matter if you get everyone to turn on me. I will fight you till my last breath! You hear me? My last breath!"

Snickering in a cruel way, Dragel said in a nasty voice, flicking his tail back and forth as he hovered in front of the Great One. His claws were painted with the blood of the Great One, which was a green, acidic liquor, capable of burning things if they touched it. When Dragel spoke, the Great One thought he saw his vision flash before his eyes once more, for a final time.

"That can be arranged."

Before he could even open his mouth, the Great One was attacked head on by Dragel, who was gripping either side of his enemy's head with his deadly claws, and was wrapping his tail around the Great One's throat. The attack was so powerful, it knocked the Great One over, earning many gasps from the warriors on his side. Then Dragel raised one hand, his claws extended, with what looked like black liquor dripping from them, and said in an evil voice, "Goodbye, _Great One._"

And then there was darkness...


	2. Chapter 1

**Hello everybody, CeCe here, or you may call me Drago. Whichever is fine with me. This chapter will mainly be focused on the serpentine. So sit back, enjoy, and eat some brownies. :)**

**Disclaimer: OK, CeCe doesn't own Ninjago, but she does own a lot of characters used in the making of this story!**

* * *

It was dark. Uncomfortably dark. Bodies all around made uneasy hissing noises, their eyes wide as they attempted to navigate their way through the darkness that had been lied down in front of them, the torches that had originally been lit having gone out as soon as the serpentine had been locked in the Stone Army Tomb by the Stone Army. It had been at least three weeks, and the serpentine were beginning to get starved and, more importantly, very thirsty. They could stand without food for maybe a month, but there was no water in this tomb, and they would die very quickly indeed without the life-giving liquid.

"Damn! And everything was going sssso well!" Hissed Skales in the darkness, his red, hypnotic eyes blazing with anger at the fact that, once again, the serpentine had been foiled in their plans to destroy the ninja. Back and forth he paced, angry with not only the ninja, but himself for being stupid enough to actually release the Stone Army minions. He should have known better! No one just finds a button with your picture on it! Well he learned his lesson, and if he ever escaped this tomb, he'd never again do that.

Flashing Skales a look of deep irritation, the Constrictai General, Skalidor, slithered over to the agitated Hypnobrai general, his arms crossed in a look of annoyance as he approached his frustrated ally. Even though Fangtom was Skales most trusted second-in-command, Skalidor was usually the one to help the blue snake out when he needed it, using his method of, what he called, 'Tough Truth'. It usually ended in Skales wanting to slap Skalidor, but the Constrictai leader's advise often worked and was almost always reliable.

When he reached Skales side, Skalidor hissed in the angry, pacing serpentine's ear, unfolding his arms so he could slap Skales out of it if he needed to, and speaking in that deep, older voice, showing that he was at least elder then Skales, and held more knowledge then the general did, "Sssskales! How long do you tend to pace? We need to find a way out of here! And we're not going to disssscover that way out if you're being ussselesssss! Already others doubt you!"

"I know, I know!" Shouted Skaes at no one in particular, angry with himself for letting him panic and, when he wasn't panicking, get angry because he had been so stupid as to just walk into a room full of old, scary-looking statues. If he hadn't been in control of himself, he might have even slapped Skalidor in the face for what the Constrictai had just confronted him with. But he didn't, and instead let out a sigh of exasperation.

This time Skalidor shook his head, not liking the fact that Skales was getting in that exasperated mood again, and let out a sigh of defeat. Not only were they trapped, but they had a leader who many thought was unable to lead them efficiently, and several of their warriors had already died of thirst. This wasn't like their old tombs at all. Their had at least been food and water in their old tombs, for a period of time, at least. They would all dwindle and die in here within at the very most, five to six months, lucky being a year at the most if they turned to cannibalism.

Looking over at Skales from where he stood, the Fangpyre leader, Fangtom, decided he had had quite enough of the snake's whining. With an agitated hiss of discomfort, the red, vampire-like serpentine slithered over to where Skales was with a ready glint in his eye, ready to talk the blue, hypnotic snake into snapping himself out of this and to try and look for something they could actually use to get themselves out of here.

"Skales," The Fangpyre said smoothly, slithering over to stand beside his old friend as the blue serpentine slumped over, tired of the whole mess they were in, and let out a long, exasperated sigh at the fact they might never get out of here alive, "Come now. You haven't become king of the snakes for nothing! They look up to you assss their leader, and you wouldn't want them to think you a coward, now would you? Sure, you've proved yourself once or twice, but if you can get them out of this mess, well... then they will truly be proud," Fangtom then rested his hand on Skales' back, patting him several times to reassure him.

Raising his head to stare into the eyes on his old friend, Skales nodded hesitantly, unsure of the mess he had some how gotten himself into. All that he knew was his scales were tingling from nervousness, and he was sweating like crazy, though he wiped the sweat from his forehead before any of the other serpentine could tell he was nervous. His tail flicked ever so slightly as he stood up straight, looking Fangtom straight in the eyes, before turning and calling out to all the other serpentine.

"Ssserpentine! It isss I! Your leader!" Serpentine began to mutter as they walked and slithered out of the way of their hypnotic leader, muttering things under their breath, "I know thingsss may sssem dark. We are quickly running out of food and water, and I know I may have not been the best leader. But I have sssseen that, in order to be a strong General, you must be strong yourself! Lead your people with courage! I'm going to repeat to you what my father told me, 'Aren't thy place to fight amongst thyself. Fight thy enemies!'. Now, are we serpentine, or are we pushovers?"

All at once, all the serpentine raised their hands, clenched in fists, into the air. Some serpentine raised weapons, and the other three generals raised their staffs, and all at the same time, under one deffening roar of triumph, the snakes shouted, "SERPENTINE!" And they all cheered of Skales' brilliant, well-met speech of bravery. It was hard, of course, because they had been defeated so many times, but as Skales gave out the order to search for weak parts in the walls of the cavern, the serpentine thought that they might actually have a chance of living through this.

At first, they found nothing out of the ordinary. Strange carvings on the walls of tombs were normal, and other then carvings there was nothing else other then cracked sandstone walls that loomed high above them into the darker, more shadowed darkness. It was so dark and hard to see because only a select few of the serpentine held torches, and all the torches that had used to be lit had gone out. Two serpentine were going around with torches, lighting the unlit ones, then handing them to other serpentine.

Then, a Venomari serpentine soldier found something that was certainly out of place for an older-then-time tomb. For laying encased in stone, only half of it visible through a tight gap that had circled around it, was a dusty paper, looking almost as old, if not older, then the cave itself. Of course when the serpentine saw it, he called his friends over to examine it, and decided to report their unusual find to Skales, who was close by.

"King Skales," Said one, the Venomari scout who had found the parchment in the first place, "We've found what looks like old paper. But its half crammed in the wall, and we were hoping you'd come to see if it looks like anything of importance," When Skales questioned where it was, the serpentine gestured towards a wall a few feet away, and led the lead serpentine in the direction of where the had found the rolled up scroll.

When they reached the wall, Skales slithered over to the unusual sight of a paper crammed tightly in the wall, dusty, old, and brown from its years of having spent down here. At first sight, it just looked like ordinary paper. But when Skales opened the rolled up part carefully, making sure not to rip any of it, and was able to bring a torch near enough to read what he could see on the partly-unfolded-partly-stuck-in-the-wall paper without burning it, he almost dropped his staff in awe and amazement.

The parchment was written in the old language of the Serpetine.

"My lord..." Whispered Skales, studying the paper to make sure the words that were on it were true. That they weren't just scribbles that just happened to look like the ancient language. Nope, he was 100% sure that this was written in old snake, which made it ten times more valuable then normal ancient parchment. Old Snake was the language that the serpentine had used to speak a long, long time ago, but it had died out during the first few human wars. Or so Skales thought.

One of the warriors who had found the paper approached him, looking curiously at the paper as he did so, "King Skales, is this something that interests you? If so, we'll dig it up right away, though it might take a while. The sandstone walls are awfully hard," The snake commented, touching part of the wall closest to the paper.

Nodding quickly, Skales said in an eager tone, feeling awfully lucky with this piece of parchment stuck in the wall of which they had found, "Yes, yes! Dig it up and presssent it to me asss ssssoon as you're finished. This may very well be the thing we're searching for! And if it is, then we better start digging, I don't care how long it takessss!" With quick nods to their leader, the two serpentine called over for help, and began to dig.

It wasn't like Skales expected nothing. People who wrote down on scrolls in a language as ancient as the Ol' Snake Tongue were usually trying to hide something from the people. Even though Skales wasn't fluent in Snake Tongue, his father had taught it to him, just in case he ran into an old article that happened to be written in their ancient tongue. If there was one thing searching through the ruins with Pythor had taught him, it was things written in Snake Tongue were generally important.

And very, very dangerous.

After all, their ancient ancestors had done a pretty damn well job at hiding the evidence that the Great Devourer had ever existed. Not only had they hidden their texts, but they had also write the majority of anything involving the Great Devourer in snake tongue, so that only trained serpentine could read the ancient transcript.

Pacing over to where his comrades were, Skales voiced what he had found to the others, and at first they all seemed uninterested. But when he told them the text of the script had been written in the ancient language of their ancestors, they expressed surprise and shock. Maybe even a little fear, too. They all made uneasy hissing noises, flicking their tails back and forth as they stared over at Skales, who looked rather pleased with himself.

"Are you sure this is true, Ssskales?" Questioned the Venomari leader, Acidicus, who was holding his staff and staring over at the hypnobrai leader with a hesitant look on his face, unsure if this was a wise idea, "After all, remember what happened lassst time we lisssstened to the ancient writings? We nearly got eaten by a giant ssssnake!"

"I have to agree with Acidicusss," Admitted the leader of the Constrictai, Skalidor, who looked away from Skales rather sheepishly, holding his staff in two hands as he fiddled with the cobra-shaped serpent head with what held the anti-venom in it, "I believe this is an unwisssse idea. Picking something up we find in the tomb of the Stone Army."

This caused Skales to shake his head in denial, refusing to listen to his comrades, no matter how wise their advise was, before looking them all over with a serious and determined look, and said in a stedy voice, "Thisss is my choice! I am your leader, and you will do what I ssssay! Besides, it's only a scroll, what harm could it do?"

Slithering over to stand beside Skalidor was Acidicus, a skeptical look on his face, "I just hope he hasn't jinxed those words..." Muttered Acidicus to Skalidor as their blue leader turned his head, going to inspect the damage the snakes had managed to do to the wall in order to get the scroll out while he had been talking to his companions.

A victorious smile appeared on Skales' face when he saw that the snakes had managed to crash the sandstone with enough force to pull the scroll out, and now the wall had many large cracks all over it, as well as a six-inch hole in the middle of it from where the scroll had been, cracks running all across it.

In the hands of one of the serpentine warriors stood the scroll, dusty and old, with a few minor tears in it that wouldn't make a difference to the reader or be an inconvenience. It seemed to have a scent to it, as well, and looked as if it were glowing slightly. It was a golden-like glow, but when one serpentine moved a torch near it to make sure Skales could see it, the glow vanished.

Resting his staff against the side of the wall in a swift movement, Skales was handed the scroll, "Excellent!" Said Skales as he picked up the scroll with a look of glee as he opened it up, studying the surface with intense concentration. Though he had to set his staff down as he read, because he needed both hands to hold the scroll apart.

"It looks to be some sort of map..." Muttered one of the soldiers, but that was all the noise that Skales heard before he heard something he thought he'd never hear again: The sound of large, stone doors opening up as they were hauled back by some unknown device behind the walls. And many snakes let out screams of joy when they saw it.

Quickly, Skales folded the map up, and spun around to see if it were true. It was! Instead of a large, unbreakable stone door in the way of their escape stood a sturdy entrance, ready for them to climb out of as soon as possible. Dust crumbled down from where the door had left, and it made slight creaking noises as it locked into place above.

For a moment, there was nothing but silence.

Then Skales quickly grabbed his staff, sweeping by to pick it up, feeling his hand collide with the cold metal, and cried out, already heading in the direction of the now open door, to his companions, "Charge! Before the blasted thing falls again! This might only be temporary, so get out while you can! Before it falls again!"

All the snakes seemed rather eager to escape, for the literally crawled over each other in a desperate attempt to get out of this death trap first, not wishing to be left behind. The sound of footsteps echoed through the cave as the four tribes worth of snakes quickly hurried to escape, their breathing heard as they panted in tired starvation.

No one dared bump into Skales, though. Nor Acidicus, Skalidor, or Fangtom, who were following behind Skales with looks of approval on their faces. They must have thought that, as they themselves made their way out of the tomb at a leisurely pace, trying to remain cool as they escaped starvation, that Skales must have proved himself.

Once everyone was out, they started getting themselves organized, and lucky for them, as soon as the last Fangpyre scout made his way through the opened door, being the last of the snakes to escape the tomb, the door began to close. Not the way it had last time, though. It just let out a creaking noise, then dropped like a stone, almost crushing the scout's tail.

"That-" pointed Skales in the general direction of the scout and closed door – the scout looking quite surprised that he had almost lost a tail, and the door just looking like... a stone wall with markings on it – stopped for a minute to catch his breath, before he continued, "Was a close one."

Everyone agreed.

As the snakes began to continue with getting around and sharing brief moments of glee at the fact that Skales had been able to escape that mess with them, Skalidor approached Skales, who looked rather tired from the whole drama, pressing his back against the side of the dirt wall which the Constrictai had made getting to the tomb in the first place. The blue snake's eyes were closed, and his mouth open as he breathed in and out, as if he were out of breath from the whole drama.

"Skales," Skalidor said, touching the blue snake's shoulder, which seemed to wake him from his brief moment of rest, "We're out. Now, what are we going to do with that map, hmm?" he asked, gesturing with his staff towards where Skales was holding the scroll, which, surprisingly, he hadn't thrown out of his hand when the door had opened.

Looking over at the Constrictai General for a moment, Skales considered this, tilting his head to one side as he pushed himself up from where he had been resting against the wall, rubbing his chin in thought, then looking down at the map. After a brief moment of thought, the snake spun around with a smirk on his face that made Skalidor guess what he was about to say.

"Why, we're going to follow it, of courssse."


End file.
